MOUTH OF THE PAEIA. 73 
August 4. To day the walls grow higher, and the cafioii much nar 
rower. Monuments are still seen on either side; beautiful glens, and alcoves, 
and gorges, and side canons are yet found. After dinner, we find the river 
making a sudden turn to the northwest, and the whole character of the 
canon changed. The walls are many hundreds of feet higher, and the rocks 
are chiefly variegated shales of beautiful colors creamy orange above, then 
bright vermilion, and below, purple and chocolate beds, with green and 
yellow sands. We run four miles through this, in a direction a little to the 
west of north ; wheel again to the west, and pass into a portion of the canon 
where the characteristics are more like those above the bend. At night we 
stop at the mouth of a creek coming in from the right, and suppose it to be 
the Paria, which was described to me last year by a Mormon missionary. 
Here the canon terminates abruptly in a line of cliffs, which stretches 
from either side across the river. 
August 5. With some feeling of anxiety, we enter a new canon this 
morning. We have learned to closely observe the texture of the rock. In 
softer strata, we have a quiet river; in harder, we find rapids and falls. 
Below us are the limestones and hard sandstones, which we found in Cata 
ract Canon. This bodes toil and danger. Besides the texture of the rocks, 
there is another condition which affects the character of the channel, as we 
have found by experience. Where the strata are horizontal, the river is often 
quiet; but," even though it may be very swift in places, no great obstacles 
are found. - Where the rocks incline in the direction traveled, the river usually 
sweeps with great velocity, but still we have few rapids and falls. But 
where the rocks dip up stream, and the river cuts obliquely across the 
upturned formations, harder strata above, and softer below, we have rapids 
and falls. Into hard rocks, and into rocks dipping up stream, we pass this 
morning, and start on a long, rocky, mad rapid. On the left there is a 
vertical rock, and down by this cliff and around to the left we glide, just 
tossed enough by the waves to appreciate the rate at which we are traveling. 
The canon is narrow, with vertical walls, which gradually grow higher. 
More rapids and falls are found. We come to one with a drop of sixteen 
feet, around which we make a portage, and then stop for dinner. 
10 COL 
